China’s Ding Liren has fought back strongly from a disastrous start against Ian Nepomniachtchi in the €2m world championship match in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Russian, playing under a neutral flag, blew the nervous 30-year-old title debutant from Wenzhou off the board in 29 moves of zestful attacking chess in game two of their scheduled 14-game series, before an increasingly confident Ding comfortably drew game three, then found a winning rook for knight sacrifice to score in 47 in Thursday’s game four. The score was Ding 2 Nepomniachtchi 2 before Friday’s rest day.
Ding’s troubles began in game one, after Nepomniachtchi chose a rare variant of the DERLD (Delayed Exchange Ruy Lopez Deferred), known as the Deadly Derld when it was popular in London tournaments in the 1970s. His selection of 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0-0 Be7 6 Bxc6 dxc6 7 Re1 even caused Magnus Carlsen to ask his aides whether that move had been considered during the prep for his 2016 match against Sergey Karjakin (yes, it had).
